How to save money in your household: your plan, in numbers and in order
Money-saving lists give everyone the same tips. Here, you describe your household, and the plan runs the site's calculators with your numbers: what saves money without buying anything, what pays for itself for you and how fast, and what you are better off not buying.
Mr Deal's plan
Your household in two minutes, your plan right away
Check what applies to you. Each area only asks what you know or can read on a bill, and compares it with a published reference. Your answers stay in your browser.
Check at least one area to open its questions.
References: EIA weekly gas prices and monthly residential electricity prices by state, EIA annual residential natural gas prices by state, EPA (food waste, tap water), Consumer Reports (store brands), fueleconomy.gov (tire pressure, highway speed), and a phone plan survey dated September 25, 2026. Each line links to its detailed calculation.
Why a plan rather than a list of tips
A tip is only worth something at a certain pace and a certain price. A coffee maker is a great buy for someone who picks up a coffee every morning, and a waste for someone who buys one a week. A $60 phone line is only too expensive if the same usage exists for $25. That comparison is what the plan makes for your household, area by area, with your numbers.
Five areas, and only questions you can answer
The plan covers the car, groceries, eating and drinking out, electricity and natural gas, and phone, internet and subscriptions. It only asks what you know or can read on a bill: a budget, a monthly amount, the kilowatt-hours on your electric bill. Each answer is compared with a published, dated reference: your state's gas and electricity prices from the Energy Information Administration, its natural gas price, the EPA's figure for food waste, Consumer Reports for store brands, and a monthly survey of the cheapest month-to-month phone plans.
The lists in your plan
Without buying anything
These are the most profitable savings, because there is no break-even to reach: switching phone plans or electricity suppliers when you pay more than the market, canceling a subscription you did not use, buying store brands, checking your tire pressure. The plan always lists them first. For electricity, it only links to your state's official comparison site, run by the public utility commission, never to a paid broker.
What pays for itself for you
For each purchase, the plan works out how many months the expense it replaces takes to pay it back, with your numbers, then what it leaves you every year. The ranking follows the payback time: a purchase paid back in a month comes before one that saves more but takes two years.
Worth checking, and already in good shape
Some savings depend on something only you can look up: the rate plans your utility offers, the internet providers wired to your address, how much food really ends up in the trash. The plan puts a figure on them, without counting them in the total. And when an area already matches the reference, it says so too.
Don't buy, for you
This is the list deal sites never publish. When a purchase does not pay back fast enough with your numbers, the plan says so, and links to no product.
Where the references come from
The purchase levers reuse the assumptions of their articles, where they are sourced and discussed: tire pressure, the coffee maker, meal prep, the grocery budget and what each appliance costs to run. Gas is counted at this week's EIA price for your state or region. Electricity is compared with your state's latest monthly residential average, and natural gas with its latest annual residential average (1 thousand cubic feet is about 10.37 therms). Food waste starts from the EPA's estimate of $728 of uneaten food per person per year, store brands from Consumer Reports (typically 25 to 30 percent cheaper; the plan uses 25), and highway speed from fueleconomy.gov (each 5 mph over 50 is like paying $0.30 more per gallon). Phone plans are surveyed every month on the carriers' own sites, never on a comparison site.
Frequently asked questions
How can I save money every month?
Start with what costs nothing, then with the expenses that repeat. Switching phone plans when you pay more than the market, canceling a subscription you no longer use, throwing away less food, buying store brands or checking your tire pressure saves money without buying anything. Then come the purchases that replace a repeated expense, like a coffee maker that replaces the coffee you buy: the more often the expense repeats, the faster they pay back. The plan on this page runs that calculation with your numbers and ranks the results.
How do I know if my electric bill is too high?
Divide your bill by the kilowatt-hours it shows: that is what you pay per kWh, all charges included. Then compare it with your state's average residential price, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes every month. If you pay clearly more and your state lets households choose their supplier, the official state comparison site lists the offers. Otherwise, your utility's other rate plans are the lever. The plan does this comparison for you.
What is the cheapest phone plan?
It depends on the data you use. In our survey of carriers' own sites (September 2026), the cheapest month-to-month plans were $15 a month for up to 10 GB (Tello, 10 GB with unlimited talk and text), and $25 a month for unlimited data (Visible, unlimited 5G on Verizon's network, taxes and fees included). Check coverage at your address before switching: you keep your number either way.
Are my answers saved?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent. Your answers are only remembered on your device for your next visit, if your browser allows it. The share button puts your numbers in a link that only you choose to send.
Going further
- All the calculators on the site, under the question each one answers.
- Gas prices by state: this week's EIA average, and what a fill-up costs.
- Your personal inflation rate: your own price rise, line by line.